Health

Grandparent monikers Just as every new baby needs a name, new grandparents need names that their grandchildren will call them. When parenting website babycenter.com surveyed thousands of parents about their grandparental monikers, they found that more than half of today’s families opt for the traditional names: Grandma and Grandpa. Other top names reported for grandmothers included Nana, Grammy, Granny, Mimi, Gram, Nanny, Oma, Mamaw and Gran. For grandfathers, Papa, Granddad, Gramps, Pop-Pop, Poppy, Papaw, Pop, Opa and Pappy were among the most popular. Roughly one in five families surveyed came up with their own grandparent nicknames, such as Honey or ...

Erin Lofton had been suffering from unexplained stomach pains for several weeks prior to a softball tournament in 2011. The pains were brief leading up to the game, but during Erin’s tournament, the pain wouldn’t go away. Erin’s mother, Laurie, took her to an urgent care center where she was diagnosed with a 102-degree fever, but received no answers. After two weeks of various tests and hospital visits, Erin was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease, a chronic inflammatory condition that affects the gastrointestinal tract. “It definitely did change my life,” Erin said. “I went from having to take absolutely no medicine ...

Knee replacements on the rise The number of total knee replacement surgeries performed in the U.S. more than tripled from 1993-2009, and excess weight appears to have fueled the demand. Observing that hip replacements doubled during the same period in which knee replacement surgeries tripled, researchers set out to find an explanation for the discrepancy. Their study, published in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, found that obesity accounted for 95 percent of the higher demand for total knee replacements, with younger people most often affected. Upon review of 10 years of national data, researchers found: • Among those ...

‘Best Nursing Home’ U.S. News & World Report has named St. Luke’s Surrey Place a “Best Nursing Home.” The skilled nursing facility earned the highest possible rating of five stars in the publication’s ratings, which highlight the best of the nation’s nearly 16,000 nursing homes. St. Luke’s Surrey Place, located at 14701 Olive Blvd. in Chesterfield, features private and semi-private rooms. There are 120 skilled nursing unit beds and 20 residential rooms for those needing minimal assistance. For the annual ratings, U.S. News & World Report utilizes data from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which assigns a ...